The Coronation of Edward the Seventh; A Chapter of European and Imperial History (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...peerages had been bestowed on colonists than the baronies of Mount Stephen. Strathcona and Macdonald of Earnscliffe--the last having been conferred on the widow of that remarkable statesman Sir John Macdonald, who would have rejoiced in the imperial significance of the Coronation. Divided from these warriors by the blazoned tabards of a line of heralds was an ornate cluster of high officials and nobles, who by long tradition walked in front of the sovereign. Here was the Lord Mayor of London exercising the ancient privilege of bearing the City Mace in this place of honour. Here was the Lord Great Chamberlain, whose hereditary function of fastening the clasps of the King's imperial mantle had been assigned to Lord Cholmondeley. Nearer the sovereign, the Sword of State in its scabbard was borne by Lord Londonderry, the grandnephew of Castlereagh, and the honour of bearing the most significant symbol on this great day fell to the Duke of Marlborough, who carried the Imperial Crown.1 In this group, surrounding the King, were two other dukes, the antiquity and splendour of whose names made them, in a historical sense, two of the most interesting figures in the pageant. The Dukes of Norfolk and of Somerset were, at the Coronation of King Edward VII., as their ancestors had been when Queen Elizabeth was crowned, at the head of the temporal peerage. Indeed, in her reign they were the sole members of the ducal order, which had otherwise become extinct, and even their titles were under attainder. The descendant of the Protector Somerset, towering above his peers, carried the Orb-, the emblem of world-wide sovereignty, which, since his grandfather bore it before Queen Victoria, had acquired a new significance. The chief of the house of Howard held...